Proverbs 13:23, For Ordinary People!
July 21, Proverbs 13:23
Matt. 25:14-30; Mark 12:43-44; 14:3-9 “This poor widow has cast in more than they all” (Lk. 21:3).
For Ordinary People!
Stretch or Starve is a humorous, but practical, motto around the dinner table of a large family. It also expresses the truth in our proverb today. Palestine, a small country, was carved into little strips of land for cultivation by each family. The establishment of the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25) was intended to prevent the acquiring of larger holdings by any one Israelite. Thus all could share its wealth more equitably. “This text is a message to ordinary, mediocre people, without much ability or influence” (Maclaren).
1. Sweat or Swing: Much food is the tillage of the poor. Yes, it is only a little piece of ground, but when worked by the sweat of the brow, it produced much food. If the man should say: What is the use of this little plot? I’ll not get enough from it to feed my family. How I would work if I had a bigger strip! So he lets it fall into weeds, while he swings in his hammock, dreaming of that bigger strip. The result: There is that is destroyed (swept away) for lack of judgment. After all, it was the careful tillage of those little strips that filled barns and fed families. If one neglected his strip, the result would be not only loss for himself, but also for his family, and the strips on either side would also suffer. He must, then, beg in time of harvest, and become a liability to himself and others.
2. Squeeze or Squander: The strip is so little, so the poor man must squeeze every inch into use. There is no space for ornamental shrubs or decorative borders that are pleasing to the eye. Nothing must go to waste. God does not just drop food onto the table. He gives it by tillage. This is the word used by Hosea (10:12) and Jeremiah (4:3). Break up your fallow ground, literally, till you the untilled ground. Sow not among thorns! Do not squander your opportunity for want of judgment!
3. Serve or Shrivel: For want of judgment the owner says: I’m so little. My strip cannot make much difference to the end result. Nobody pays any attention to me or to my little effort. There are plenty of other better-qualified farmers to do the work. My talent is so trivial. I’ll just bury it! No one will miss my effort, and the result is that your talent, instead of expanding through use, just shrivels up, and is lost! Now, wait just a moment! Are you saying that responsibility is determined by the size or the number of one’s talent or talents? Does not the Bible and history prove that the greatest purposes of God are done by little people, the one talenters, the insignificant? Multi-talented people are few and far between. “Small service is true service, and the aggregate of such produces large crops” (Maclaren). Much may be made of little gifts, small resources, and limited space if carefully cultivated, as they should be, and as their very scantiness encourages their being so used. The vast majority of us have little talents, but little is much if God is in it. The widow’s mite is a mighty mite as Jesus took time to explain!
Thought: “Humility is not only a garment but an ornament” (Manton).
Prayer: Lord, rouse me to till my little strip for Thy Glory.